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EUGENE, Ore. — (Sept. 20, 2012) — An AmeriCorps program administered by the University of Oregon is beginning a 19^th year of service to rural Oregon, buoyed by especially strong support at a time when state resources for similar efforts are limited.

Through Resource Assistance for Rural Environments or RARE, 25 graduate-level students depart immediately for rural communities across Oregon. They’ll spend the next 11 months living and working in the state’s smaller towns, assisting officials with projects that improve economic, social and environmental conditions.

With funding for the $2 million program secure for the next three years, “we can ensure that AmeriCorps members are bringing critical support to rural Oregon,” said Megan Smith, executive director of the UO Community Service Center, which administers the program.

An AmeriCorps grant of $200,000 annually leverages the additional support necessary for the program. Key partners include Oregon Food Bank, Oregon Main Street program and Oregon Volunteers!

Under RARE, qualified college graduates (with a bachelor’s degree) and graduate-level students who are selected as RARE AmeriCorps members assist communities and agencies in developing plans that sustain natural resources and improve rural economic conditions. In return, students gain community building and leadership skills.

Terra Wilcoxson, who in June earned a master’s degree in architecture from the university, will help the city of Tillamook implement a master plan for parks. “It will be incredibly helpful for future job opportunities,” she said.

Khristina Fulkerson, who earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Humboldt State University, will work with the Oregon International Port of Coos Bay on projects to improve the local and regional economy.

“It’s an amazing opportunity to do this great work with a level of professionalism and independence that I wouldn’t expect to find easily elsewhere,” she said.

Among the communities that will be served, three participants will work in Roseburg and others will be located from Port Orford to Lakeview to LaGrande. Projects for RARE participants include downtown redevelopment programs, local and regional food systems, tourism-based economic development and renewable-energy initiatives, among others.

About the University of Oregon

The University of Oregon is among the 108 institutions chosen from 4,633 U.S. universities for top-tier designation of “Very High Research Activity” in the 2010 Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. The UO also is one of two Pacific Northwest members of the Association of American Universities.

MEDIA CONTACT:
Matt Cooper, UO media relations, 541-346-8875, mattc@uoregon.edu

SOURCE:
Megan Smith, executive director, Community Service Center, 541-346-3881, smith@uoregon.edu

Mountain biking, kayaking, cycling, hiking, sailing, kite boarding and windsurfing are more than just great sports activities in the Columbia Gorge. They represent a significant regional economic engine – fueled by growing participation -which yields substantial local spending.

For Cascade Locks, the newly articulated goal to become an easy-access hub for each of these sports within the Gorge is creating citizen excitement and outside investment opportunities.

A rich and well-articulated plan is now in the hands of Cascade Locks port and city staff, which provides step-by-step guidance on how to achieve that goal. Now, all that is needed is a small crew of local residents and outside helpers to bring that dream to fruition.

“Tourism is a key industry for us in the Gorge,” said Chuck Daughtry, port director. “We are planning to have world-class access points for all of these recreation sports. We will also have direct access to old-growth forest trails right from an urban area.”

The “Connect Cascade Locks” planning document was crafted by Portland State University graduate students in the Celilo Planning Studio. The primary focus of the year-long project was to increase economic development prospects for the town by creating a regionally integrated recreation trails network to attract people, bikes, boards and watercraft into the heart of the community.

“Creating a trails stewardship group will be one of our top priorities,” said Daughtry, who notes that outside groups such as the Northwest Trails Alliance and the International Mountain Biking Association have already provided some assistance to the plan and beginning projects.

“We really want people from Cascade Locks to get more involved and take on the tasks of helping with trail access, signage, maintenance and mapping,” he said.

“This comes at a great time for Cascade Locks as we are seeing the completion of the Historic Columbia River Highway State Trail between Troutdale and Cascade Locks by next summer,” said Holly Howell, port RARE AmeriCorps volunteer. “We will benefit from the opening of that trail.”

That upcoming event, slated for late August 2013, is part of the key idea of increasing “connectivity” for the town.

With improved connections to a variety of sports and outlying population centers, plus local “stewards” getting trail access points well-marked (making “wayfinding” easier for visitors), the town really needs only two additional components to achieve the economic hub concept: amenities.

As existing natural attractions are better exposed and made easily accessible, the town hopes to attract investments in businesses that provide services to trail users and day visitors, along with local residents.

The plan looks to increase food, lodging, supply and entertainment options for visitors and local users alike.

“We think this whole plan will improve livability for locals. Already, with the construction of the easyCLIMB trail, we’ve made parts of our forest accessible to our town that hadn’t been accessible for generations,” said Howell.

The easyCLIMB mountain bike trail has already become a favorite with locals and visitors. Recent workshops and trail building crews have packed the fun biking path with many enthusiasts.

A final key component, to be handled primarily by city staff, will be the town’s commitment to developing new and recurring recreational events that bring new users to the town’s trails hub.

“We are already hosting laser sailing races, the Cascade Locks to Crown Point race, this year’s State Short Track Mountain Bike Championship (Aug. 12) and the Doublecross cyclocross event (Sept. 15-16),” said Howell. More events are in the development stage for the coming year.

With port and city guidance, help from local citizens and some key outside volunteers and investors, Cascade Locks hopes to turn its “diamond in the rough” image into a sparkling gemstone whose buffed-up value will support generations to come.

Pendleton City Council unanimously agreed Tuesday to bring aboard another volunteer from the Rural Assistance for Rural Environments program to replace Hilary Lovelace, who departs July 31.

The nine month, $22,000 program is a collaboration between the AmeriCorps and the University of Oregon. Lovelace, 22, of Raleigh, N.C., moved to Pendleton shortly after graduating from Appalachian State University in 2011 with a bachelor’s in sociology, minor in geography, and certificate in geographic information systems.

Councilman Bryan Branstetter was concerned about the cost to the city, which must foot what grants don’t cover. But Lovelace and Corbett were confident they could secure most, if not all, of the money through grants.

Lovelace, whose last day is July 31, said she’s applied for a $10,000 Wildhorse grant and $10,000 from the Meyer Memorial Trust, and Round-Up City Development Corporation has pledged $2,000 to fund the program. Corbett said he’s researched other grant options, as well, including the Pendleton Foundation Trust. Corbett said the city pays less than half of what it would for someone else to do the work.

“The value of the RARE program is that we get temporary staff to work on projects that benefit the community that we wouldn’t otherwise accomplish,” Corbett said.

Lovelace said she has checked census data against local records such as Pacific Power and water billing records, compiled a buildable lands inventory, collaborated with Energy Trust to help residents save energy costs, worked on geographic information systems projects and created the housing rehabilitation program for the next RARE participant.

She also coordinated Solarize Pendleton, recently fraught with complication from the sudden insolvency of LiveLight Energy, the solar power systems installer the city hired for the project.

Lovelace said Pendleton conducted the first interviews for her successor Friday. She said the city will consider four to five candidates, who will each choose five communities in which they are interested in working. AmeriCorps and the University of Oregon will make the final matches, and Lovelace’s successor will start in about a month.

She said the person filling her shoes needs initiative and interpersonal skills.

“They’re going to have to be incredibly self-motivated and comfortable talking to lots of people,” she said. “It’s not always clear what the best thing is to do, so I’ve had to do a lot of exploring on my own.”

She said her favorite part of the job has been its flexibility and the people she’s met.

“Because I’m a fresh face people are more willing to talk to me,” she said.

Lovelace said working with a lot of community organizations has made it easier to get to know the community, and she’s made meaningful connections that will last long after her time in Pendleton.

“People are full of ideas and that made my job a lot easier,” she said. “And they were always very willing to talk to me.”

Conventional wisdom says as the Portland area goes, so goes the Oregon economy. Size alone ensures that the three-county metro area sets the tone for the rest of the state. But if you travel east on Interstate 84, you drive through a region that is faring just as well as — if not better than — the Portland area economically.

Of the six Oregon counties east of Multnomah that touch the Columbia River, only sparsely populated Sherman County has an unemployment rate above the statewide seasonally adjusted rate of 8.4 percent. Hood River County, with a seasonally adjusted rate of 6.9 percent in May, is tied with Washington, the most economically healthy of the metro counties, for second-lowest in the state.

The Columbia River Gorge counties, like the Portland metro area, have geographic advantages. But their economies have benefited from decisions and developments that provide an example for the rest of Oregon. Most impressively, the region survived the loss of a bedrock industry, aluminum, and rebuilt a diversified economy that leverages the region’s natural advantages.

In short, the gorge is showing the rest of the state what it takes to succeed in the 21st-century economy.

To appreciate what has happened in the gorge, it’s helpful to consider what the region looked like during the 1979-82 recession in contrast to the most recent recession, from which the state and nation are slowly recovering.

In the late ’70s and early ’80s, the gorge had three anchor industries in aluminum, in Wasco County and across the Columbia in Washington; timber, mostly in Hood River County; and agriculture, throughout the gorge, though the crops varied by county.

Today, agriculture remains, but aluminum is gone and timber activity minimal. Much like the Portland area and the state as a whole, the region is pursuing an economic cluster strategy. The clusters targeted by the Mid-Columbia Economic Development District are high-tech (anchored by drone-related businesses), health care, arts and culture, renewable energy and value-added agriculture.

Currently, growth at Insitu and other drone-related companies and strong agricultural markets drive the gorge economy. But in recent years the region also has benefited from wind farms and related industries, non-drone high-tech such as Google’s data center and a well-defined tourism niche that mixes the gorge’s recreation offerings and local arts scene.

The gorge undoubtedly benefits from its proximity to Portland and strong transportation infrastructure, which includes rail, highway and river shipping options. But the success did not happen by accident. Among other things, the gorge’s economic approach provides a local example of what happens when the cluster strategy is well-executed.

U.S. Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., of Hood River said The Dalles was attractive to Google because of the infrastructure it offered, specifically affordable power and a high-speed fiber loop. “You have to be ready for opportunities,” he said.

Likewise, it helps to have an anchor employer, a role Insitu fills in the gorge. The drone-maker has roughly 500 employees in the gorge (about half on the Washington side), and its presence has led to spinoff companies such as American Aerospace Engineering in White Salmon, Wash.

Amanda Hoey, executive director of the Mid-Columbia Economic Development District, which serves counties on both sides of the Columbia, also credits cooperation as a key part of the gorge’s success. The district works with three Oregon counties and two Washington counties as well as private companies and the two state governments to develop programs that foster business retention and expansion, she said.

Hoey, who worked in an AmeriCorps program on the Oregon coast before returning to her home region in the gorge, said she thinks principles such as cooperation and “looking at the natural economic bases rather than looking to attract something that isn’t a fit” are applicable to parts of the state with more challenging circumstances.

Certainly it’s easier to set sail on a new path when you have the wind at your back, but the gorge’s ability to navigate the choppy economic waters of recent years should offer inspiration to all.

The Astoria Downtown Historic District Association is thriving, thanks in large part to having had a full-time coordinator for the past year and a half.

Blaire Buergler is an AmeriCorps volunteer through the RARE (Resource Assistance for Rural Environments) program and has been the downtown association coordinator since August 2010. She organizes meetings, volunteers, outreach, public relations and events for ADHDA. In exchange for experience and a small stipend, volunteers like Buergler are helping to grow organizations even in these tight-budget times.

“We cannot survive without a Blaire,” said former ADHDA president Tiffany Estes.

Current president Dulcye Taylor shared that sentiment. “To continue at the level and to exceed the level we’ve been at, we need a Blaire,” she told ADHDA members at the January meeting.

AmeriCorps jobs typically last a few months to a year. Buergler is in her second year with ADHDA, which plans to apply for another volunteer this spring, and if accepted, interviews with potential volunteers will happen in July.

“I think the RARE program has had a good experience with Astoria,” which Buergler said has provided her “the professional development that the program is all about.”

RARE is an AmeriCorps program that matches community planners at the beginning of their career with rural Oregon communities. Each community pays $19,000 of the $32,000 necessary to place, train and to provide a $1,500 monthly stipend for their volunteer.

“The RARE program is very selective,” Buergler said. “You have to have a bachelor’s degree and they are looking for planners.”

When she first applied for the program in spring of 2010, Buergler thought she was a long shot so she was surprised to be asked to do a phone interview.

However, Buergler has a bachelor’s degree in public and urban affairs from Virginia Tech, where she was also a resident advisor in the dorms and a member of the dive team. At the time when she interviewed, she was working as a visitor services counselor for Arlington (Va.) Economic Development.

The program interviewed 50 people by phone for an hour each, when she was one of 25 people selected to fly out for interviews with the communities, Buergler hedged her bets and chose to interview with seven communities.

She took a week off from work and flew to Oregon. “I rented a car and drove around the state to do interviews,” she said. “It was like interview boot camp.”

The program administrators had wisely advised her to schedule her last interview with the community she was most interested in.

So, after interviewing with North Plains, Adair Village, Crestwell, Toledo, The Dalles and Cascade Locks, she rolled into Astoria—able to anticipate the questions her interviewers might ask.

After answering questions from a six-person panel, Buergler was taken on a walking tour, which she said was the real interview. Her interviewers were most interested in how Buergler interacted with shopkeepers.

“The technical stuff they can teach you, but the personable stuff,” that’s innate.

After the interviews are over, both the communities and the candidates rank their top choices (and their “no ways”). Ideally, volunteers and communities will choose each other and each get their top pick.

“Luckily, Astoria wanted me and I wanted them,” Buergler said.

Buergler later asked the volunteer who ended up at her “no way” community how he liked it, and he said he was very happy with his choice.

“Somehow, everyone ends up where they’re supposed to be,” she said. “We’re all at completely different stages in life … Everyone’s from different places, but we all have similar interests.

“And clearly, we’re all crazy because we’re willing to be plopped down in a random place and get paid nothing,” she said.

Although it’s unusual for volunteers to stay longer than one 11-month term, Buergler signed up for a second year in Astoria, hoping to see some of the projects she’d started come to fruition.

After two years, she is ready to move on. Although she’d briefly considered going back to graduate school right away, she decided to re-enter the workforce instead and will soon be looking for a job.

“I feel like I’ve been living like a poor broke college student,” she said. Her ideal job would be with a local municipality doing urban planning, community development, downtown revitalization or economic development, where she’d be able to learn from colleagues. “Hopefully now I’m more marketable.”

While Buergler’s two years in Astoria has allowed her to build new skills and improve her resume, the benefits to the downtown association have been bigger still.

Buergler has facilitated Astoria’s participation in the Main Street Program, which focuses on revitalizing downtown economies while remaining true to the city’s unique character and heritage. She has also worked with the city to improve storefront and street signage and to investigate ways to lessen commercial vacancies downtown.

But, Estes said, the most noticeable way Buergler has improved the ADHDA is in terms of communication. Buergler has been instrumental in starting and maintaining a facebook page, e-newsletter and website for ADHDA. “Now we can communicate with each other a whole lot better,” Estes said.

In addition to Buergler, there are three other AmeriCorps volunteers serving in Clatsop County, according to community relations coordinator Tom Bennett. Joe Otts, also with the RARE program, is working with the City of Seaside. Nina Palmarini and Meredith Payton are working with the Juvenile Department.

Since 1977, the CSC has continually built on two main objectives: to provide service to Oregon communities and to provide students with service learning opportunities in the areas of planning, community and economic development, natural resource and hazards management, and project management. Each year our service learning model grows and expands, capturing the ever-changing local, regional, and global environments in which we live. With the assistance of all our Graduate Teaching Fellows, interns, RARE members, students, and staff supporting the CSC, we will continue to strive for excellence in to 35th year and beyond. This, our 2011 Annual Report, will reflect on this past year’s accomplishments.

Click here to access the CSC 2011 Annual Report

Interviews this winter with food producers, grocery retailers and schools provided evidence that efforts have improved in accessing local food and combatting hunger.

Now a survey targets Wallowa County consumers directly regarding their thoughts on local food systems.

Joshua Russell of the Northeast Oregon Economic Development District is compiling information into a Community Food Assessment and is encouraging community participation in the consumer survey.

 “Everyone who completes the survey has the option to be entered into a drawing for $25 of Buckskin Bucks which can be spent at any of more than 50 participating local stores, “ said Russell.

The survey will provide up-to-date information on where people get their food and the factors that affect local food access such as price, availability, or choice.

On the horizon this summer are plans for new farmers’ markets in Wallowa and Lostine providing growers outlets to sell their goods.

Recent accomplishments include the Joseph School serving local beef, fruit, salad greens and carrots in its food program and it has plans to increase the amount of fresh produce through the Magic Garden farm-to-school partnership.

Volunteers with Slow Food Wallowa County are offering a Best Practices guide to community and school gardens. And local farms and ranches contribute meat and produce to the food bank at Community Connections, where more than 80 percent of food items already come from community donations.

Paper copies of the Consumer Food Access Survey are available at the following locations: Joseph City Hall, Wallowa Senior Center and The Blonde Strawberry in Wallowa, The Bookloft, Enterprise City Hall, Community Connection, Department of Human Services and Building Healthy Families in Enterprise.

An online version is also available and can be found by visiting the NEOEDD Facebook page. Having a Facebook account is not necessary to access the page.

Surveys will be collected through April 2012. The survey can be completed anonymously and individual responses will remain confidential. They can be returned to the place where they were acquired or to the NEOEDD office at 101 NE 1st St., Suite 100, Enterprise, downstairs from the Enterprise Library.

When complete in July 2012, the Community Food Assessment will provide a mixture of statistics, trends, and survey results.

The assessment is sponsored by volunteers with the Wallowa County Food System Council with assistance from the Development District and the Oregon Food Bank.

To volunteer or for more information, contact Joshua Russell at 541-426-3598.

The community of Cascade Locks will soon have a new amenity on a section of scenic waterfront property just outside of town, and if all goes as planned, the trail will be the first of many to be added to the area.

With partnership from the Northwest Trails Alliance, the Port of Cascade Locks is hosting a public work party Sunday to finish a two-mile, multi purpose loop trail at the end of Industrial Park Way. The trail weaves its way around land where a Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs casino has been proposed; and with striking vistas, decent dirt and flat terrain, the family-friendly track will be a positive addition to the otherwise vacant lot.

Volunteers did a good portion of trail building last month and with 20 people already confirmed for Sunday’s work party, the trail — dubbed “Easy Climb” — will be ready to ride after the weekend.

“We’re very excited about the project,” said Holly Howell, port special projects manager. “It’s a great addition for the community, and it’s just the start of what we’re hoping will be a new network of trails in the area.”

With help from NWTA, the trail was designed to be the first phase of a future trail complex on port property between Eagle Island and the new Blackberry Beach windsurfing launch site on the northwest corner of the lot.

“The trail is intended to serve as a community amenity to Cascade Locks as well as a recreation destination opportunity for visitors,” Howell explained. “It also builds momentum in the community for several exciting regional trail projects on the horizon, including the connection of the Historic Highway bicycle and pedestrian trail by the Oregon Department of Transportation, the feasibility study for improved bicycle and pedestrian safety on the Bridge of the Gods, and a 26-mile mountain bike trail complex on U.S. Forest Service land just south of town.”

The larger-scale trails project, called Cascade Locks International Mountain Bike (CLIMB) trail, has created quite a buzz among Gorge-area mountain bike advocates. If environmental studies are completed as planned, the extensive trail system should begin to take shape in 2012-13.

“The port envisions many opportunities for trail connections to the heart of the Cascade Locks,” Howell said. “It brings some exciting opportunities to the community, and I think once the word gets out and people start using the trail, they’re going to be really excited about future projects.”

A master plan of several trails on Industrial Park Way was drawn up by Andrew Jansky of Flowing Solutions LLC, who volunteered his expertise as an engineer. He said breaking ground on the rest of the trails in the plan will require a conditional use permit through city planning, but that if things go as the port hopes, work on another ten miles of trails will be started sometime next summer.

“The hope is to build some excitement with this first trail, as a gateway to the rest of the trails that are planned for the area,” Jansky said. “This one is a family trail; it’s a great place to take kids, to go for a nice easy ride and to enjoy some simple features.”

Other trails in the master plan would link together with the first one and would include the capability to host cycling events like cross country and cyclecross races.

“We’re hoping to continue and to keep the energy going next year as a lead-in to the rest of the larger CLIMB system,” Jansky said.

Cascade Locks has changed a lot since 2004, the last time the city council put together a development plan for the city’s downtown.

A planned casino has been stalled, the economic downturn hammered housing developments and the city government itself has seen turmoil and turnover.

That plan envisioned a downtown lined with tree groves, stone benches and modern street lights anchored by increased access to the port and redeveloped Columbia Center Mall.

When current Port Special Projects Manager Holly Howell went through the plan this fall, there was not much progress to found.

“City council did adopt this plan, but as far as I can tell, not much of it has been followed,” she told a joint meeting of the Port Commission and City Council Monday night.

The port and city came together at the encouragement of interim city administrator Paul Koch to reboot the process and gather some fresh ideas.

The intent of the meeting was not to pick apart the old plan or to come up with a new one in one fell swoop, but to begin the process of visioning what Cascade Locks could look like in 30 years.

Koch has experience on similar projects in the past, including one to revitalize the downtown district of Maupin. Koch said that revitalized downtown will be key to any growth in Cascade Locks in the future.

“Downtown becomes a major driver in growth,” he said. “The big project you all were hoping for is probably not going to happen. We need to sit down and figure out what we want downtown to look like in 20-30 years without a whole lot of detail.”

Initial ideas suggested simple projects ranging from painting to pulling weeds.

“It doesn’t take any money to pull weeds,” said community member Gyda Haight.

As ideas began to fly in from the audience, Koch kept the conversation on track whenever people got into side discussions on the merits or practicality of any of the ideas, reminding them that “We want you to go up to 30,000 feet, go forward 30 years and tell us what you see,” he said. “If you see a tree-lined Main Street, that’s great; but we don’t want to know where you buy the seeds from.”

Ideas began flying in, ranging from an interactive playground similar to the one at Hood River’s waterfront park to increased bike access and electric vehicle-charging stations. Koch wrote so many down on sheets of paper lining the room that he used up the ink in several markers.

Repeated mentions were made of making the town friendlier for current and future businesses.

Among the ideas for improving the business environment downtown included flower baskets, weather shelters and bike racks to make the downtown more accessible.

Ideas were also tossed around of what sort of businesses could be used in Cascade Locks or how current business could expand to meet a need.

Several people brought up making Cascade Locks more outdoor recreation-oriented, a path it has already started down with increased events for the bike and sailing communities.

However, one problem several people noted is that the city does not have the services to meet the demand of that clientele, with one noting “we need to be a 24-hour city.”

Ideas to expand services included an outdoor clothing and supply store, and equipment rental shop, and eateries open later in the evening, a brew pub in the heart of downtown and a better use for the current city hall building.

“Twenty years from now I want a place like Leavenworth to look at us and go ‘Wow, how did they steal business from us,” City Council member Jeff Helfrich said.

Port Commissioner Joeinne Caldwell said it was important to seek input from the business community and the community at large as the process moves along, instead of simply dictating a plan.

Several members of the business community were present at the meeting and volunteered to be part of the steering committee which will seek continued input to continue the process.

At the end of the night participants agreed that to avoid repeating 2004, the community would need to unite behind a plan.

“We need to have the fortitude to follow the vision,” City Council member Helfrich said.

Koch emphasized that simply coming up with a plan is not enough, that it needs to be put into action, unlike the previous attempt.

“We can’t just sit here and do nothing,” he said. “Or the future will escape us.”